This invention relates to self-leveling plate or dish dispensers of the type used in cafeterias or restaurants, for example, and is directed particularly to improvements therein, particularly with respect to the guide mechanism for accommodating a range of sizes, selectively, of the dishes to be dispensed.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3, 937,361, issued Feb. 10, 1976, there is illustrated and described an adjustable self-leveling plate dispenser having an internal compression spring constrained between a pressure head upon which the stacked dishes are supported and the bottom of the dispensing tank, and further including a plurality of vertically-extending guide rods adjustable radially of the vertical axis of the dispensing tank to accommodate various sizes of dishes to be dispensed. Because food particles and other foreign matter falls through the upper end of the tank to accumulate at the inside, it is often necessary, for sanitation purposes, to remove the pressure head to clean the tank and the plate guide mechanism.